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Thursday, March 12, 2009

We are 11 Months Old... and very busy...

The boys are 11 months old and sitting still for a group picture falls right below graduating college on their priority list these days! They have way too much to do these days to sit still. There will be plenty of time to sit still later. I will get another group picture of their faces one day.... right? I have been taking pictures of the boys every two weeks since they were born. This morning, I got them dressed, in their new outfits from Ms. Heather, and combed hair so I could take our bi-weekly photo. The pictures above are the best I could get.

The boys have learned about the camera and actually smile when they see me bring it out. There is an orange light that shines before the flash goes off. When this orange light is on their face, they usually light up with the biggest... over smile. As seen below, Andrew and Wesley believe a smile involves fully opening ones mouth. It was hard to shine the camera on them without them showing a fully open mouth. I will be sure to take the camera when we go to our first dentist appointment. Jared on the other hand, has a perfect little heart warming smile to show off those pearly whites. Here are the best of the individual shots, I was able to take....

Another challenge to taking pictures these days is the growing fascination the boys have with the camera. The boys desperately want to hold the camera, explore the camera parts and just overall destroy the camera. In addition to this curiosity, the boys are also learning the power (and art) of manipulation. Here are a few pictures of Andrew working hard to convince me to give him the camera. There is an ottoman separating him from the camera.

First, he starts with the sweet pout by resting his head down on the ottoman and lets out a few whimpers...After a few seconds of the pout, he picks up his head to see if I have fallen victim to his power. When I stand firm, he tosses this very sad face in my direction....

When he realizes that my will power is stronger than his, he pulls out one last weapon.... the TEARS. Yes, that is right, he was able to muster up a few tears to support his position that he deserves to have the camera and then he reaches out to me in the hopes that I will weaken and hand over the camera....

Alas, our dance is over and I was able to stand strong and not weaken under this attack. While I am sure I will be considered cruel to continue to snap pictures through this exchange, please know this lasted for only a few seconds and the individual shot of him smiling above was taken just a few seconds after this last picture. He moved from these very serious tears to laughter very quickly... funny kids!! I am confident that I will not win all of these power struggles but I was able to stand strong this time.... score 1 for Mommy.

So, in addition to being very active, what else are we up to these days at 11 months? The boys are quickly transitioning from infanthood to toddlerhood. Wesley is walking more and more everyday. Andrew and Jared are cruising like crazy and standing without holding on but have not taken that first step. The boys are still playing in the living room which is set up as our play area but we are already planning to open up more space for them to roam. As they are moving more, the space seems to be getting smaller. The hair pulling and toy stealing is increasing so we hope if we give them more to explore, this will decrease.

With the trip and daylight savings time impacting the boys schedule, we have decided to move from two naps to a one nap schedule. We have struggled with this a little because the boys (well, Wesley) are so use to taking shorter naps a three hour block of sleep is a hard adjustment. Andrew and Jared are doing ok with it but Wesley will wake after 1.5 hours and then wake up the others to play. We have stuck with it and they will fall back to sleep (most of the time). This schedule is nice, for me at least. I like the full three hours during the day. The prior 1.5 hour naps (breaks) seemed to be over as soon as they started.

The boys are waving, kissing (wide open mouth) and putting toys away (where they do not belong). As we have their play area sectioned off from the rest of the house, there are some barriers. The boys are starting (Andrew mostly) to drop the toys or toss the toys over these barriers. It's funny to watch them get a toy and drop it over the fence. I hope I can parlay this into actually picking up their toys and putting a basketball into a hoop (hoo yaa!).

There are a lot of Ma Mas and mostly Da Das flying around but nothing directed appropriately (that I can tell). There are also a lot of other sounds and conversational squeals but I have not been able to detect any words.

The boys' meals are starting to resemble more and more like real people meals. They are great at feeding themselves and using their sippy cups. The boys are eating waffles, pancakes, biscuits, bananas, blueberries, raspberries, cantaloupe, yogurt, toast, cheese, cheerios, pickles, cucumbers and really anything we offer them. We are still feeding them baby cereal, veggies and meals just to make sure they are getting a well balanced diet but each day we experiment more and more with table food. The boys are using their sippy cups during meals and while they don't quite know how to set the cup down (it's more like a slam), it's so cute to watch them take a few bites of food, then take a sip and then take a few more bites. They are quickly becoming ... little boys!

Our 11 month schedule is....

7:30 - Wake up - 8oz bottle

8:30 - Breakfast

11:30 - Lunch

12:00 - 3:00 - Nap

3:30 - Snack

5:30 - Dinner

7:00 - Bedtime routine - 8oz bottle

7:30 - Bed

We are down to two bottles a day and over the next month, we will transition to sippy cups. I do not envision this being a problem because the boys are already drinking their bottles like sippy cups. They are drinking them sitting up or even standing up at times. It has been a wild 11 months and I can not believe my next monthly update will be our birthday on Easter Sunday.

Mama & Papa Darnell

April 12, 2008 - Happy Birthday Boys!!

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